Katherine Mansfield was born in Wellington, New Zealand,' in 1888, and a number of her stories evoke her New Zealand childhood. A passionate admirer of Chekhov's works, she concentrated on the short-story form, usually capturing a brief but significant moment in the lives of her characters. After several unhappy relationships she married John Middleton Murry in 1918, but she was already suffering from tuberculosis and was to die five years later. Her best-known works are Bliss and The Garden-party.